E-CONSORTIUM OF UNIVERSITY CENTERS AND RESEARCHERS FOR PARTNERSHIP WITH JUSTICE PRACTITIONERS

Center Against Trafficking of Commodities and Humans, CATCH, San Diego State University

Expertise

Geospatial analysis of massive databases through time and space, near real-time analysis of social media like Twitter, innovative database query of massive databases, mapping patterns of life and aberrations and alerting, collaboration with Mexican Law Enforcement and government, collaboration with Law Enforcement in countries such as Vietnam, India, Somalia, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia; border optimization

Type of Outreach/Activities Engages In:
Actual work with agencies, building templates for data analysis, teaching, work along US-Mexico border including south of the border, work internationally

Grant Writing Expertise: Yes

Past sources of research funding:
Just formed, but group has been funded by DHS, NRL, ONR, ONDCP, US Navy, NORTHCOM, and SPAWAR including several government agencies working outside US

Current Projects:
Center Against Trafficking of Commodities and Humans, CATCH, is working on data analysis of dozens of data sets to build templates for law enforcement including appropriate use of social media like Twitter to assist in documenting trafficking of goods such as drugs, guns, money, pharmaceuticals, and terrorists and using human trafficking as an integrally related though more despicable activity by criminal networks, gangs, and transnational organizations

References:
If Professional references, available if needed; if journal references, also can provide

Indirect Cost Rates:
49.5% Federally negotiated rate on direct costs, though move as much as possible to related sub-contractors where overhead is only on first $25K and the rest is pass through

Organizational policies on the use of collected data:
Much of the data is hosted on off-campus commercial assets for ultra-high availability and security as well as redundancy and operational security

Organizational policies on publications:
University does not require us to publish in open literature, so that most of our work is reported directly to the agencies involved as monthly and final reports.